BEING A STAR

What does being a star mean? It means a lot of things: fame, money, fans, friends, rivals, paparazzi and publicity.

Let’s take the first word: FAME, or Following A Manipulating Edge. Isn’t it awesome to be famous? All people talk about you here and there, you appear on the cover of the magazines and your hardest task is to write autographs. Wonderful? More or less.

Next: MONEY. Everybody understands this word, no need for doubts. If you are successful as a star, you’ll have enough money to have a happy life.

Next? Oh yeah, the FANS. Maybe the most important part. Nobody’s a star without having people who appreciate them. But still, the fans are individuals who may love you or not only because of what you do. But they don’t really know anything about you, and just what you seem to be. Sad, isn’t it?

FRIENDS. This fact is important no matter if you are a star or not. But seriously, when you’re a star the number of your friends is either too high or too low. Never trust them.

If I said friends, I have to say RIVALS, too. The rivals are the ones who don’t like you, who are jealous of you, who can’t stand you at all.

Papa-PAPARAZZI. They are the paid ones to make you feel ‘important’. Or just to get on your nerves and follow you everywhere. Whatever. Stalkers are really annoying.

The PUBLICITY is good only if the article is worth reading. Nobody wants to find out a dirty thing about their idols. We’re talking about the fans here because the publicity is only for them.

In the end, all these key words and many others I can find for you are wandering around the subject. Being a star is a rare thing. It’s… How shall I put it… It’s a great experience, it gives you a chance to show off your talent and make you known, but at the same time, it’s a fake thing, some sort of manipulation. But this is already another topic.

Written By Madalina Varlan

NEVER/ ALWAYS PUT OFF UNTIL TOMORROW WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY

As any of us, you have rights and duties. The duties are the things you have to do for your own good. You can’t expect them to solve themselves, meaning you have to work from time to time.

Usually it’s better to do as many things as you can because you never know what mighthappen. But also, it’s not a good thing if you overwork yourself  and push your energy to the extreme.

The one whosaid ‘Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today’ was undoubtedly avery hardworking person who loved having everything in order and did not enjoywatching clouds.

When you are a pupil or a student, you already have many tasks to do so you aren’t willingto let other things interfere your program. But these days most of them puteverything off until the next day even the necessary and important things like homework for some spare time for relaxing and having fun.

I think it depends on each person’s mood and life style whether they are hyperactive or couch potatoes and it still works the same for me.

Written By Madalina Varlan 

AS THEY POACH

She felt the charms and times trickling down through the thin fingers in a hilarious way and was designing herself to fall into youth abyss. She watched harmfully how the rain was falling onto her and hesitated – it suddenly turned colourless. It was fear and rage; a third person was spoken about. But she carried on. She was hiding narcisism in the flames and watching his face changed into the unknown. She was dancing, singing to herself her happiness; was painting, sketching immortality. She remembered, after a long separation, the rumour of heyday and wrapped it up selfishly in silk. She was carrying her voice over and over again, but overcharged from lips. Demanded the theoretic meanings of facts, thoughts, beliefs, listening to the shade of a maple leaf. And when, with wholes of irritation and enthusiasm, she unfolded her wings wide and flew away.

 Written By Olivia Cojocaru

A PERSON'S CHILDHOOD YEARS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT YEARS IN A PERSON'S LIFE

I’d like to ask you: what does “childhood” mean to you ? Is it the most beautiful period or just the beginning of a cruel life ?

For me, the childhood years can’t be compared with anything. It is not only that you learn to talk, walk, run, laugh and so on. It is the period when you have the freedom to explore something unknown, the period when you have no worry and no sorrow. What if you get hurt ? Mom kisses and comforts you and you forget about everything. What about the stories told by granny ? There are Kings and Queens and butterflies and smiles. They make you hope for the better, for being a princess or a king. Or about the witchy stories and scary jokes told in the middle of the night ? Watching TV and hoping one day you’ll be a football player or something more. I have no doubt in saying that one’s childhood is the most important part of life for somebody. You hide and eat more sweets than you are allowed to and then you barely eat anything. Because that is just the way life is then: sweet. So what if you are rejected ? You cry a little, but you see it doesn’t deserve your time and happiness and you go and play those noisy games. You love your life and don’t care about who you are, who they are. It simply goes.   

But on the other hand, there are people who don’t even want to hear about childhood.Why ? Most of the cases because they were unhappy. Dad used to beat mom, or he was adopted… All these dramas you watch on TV. And it is sad. None of us could describe that part unless we were involved into something like that.

In conclusion, I think that childhood years are the most important for a man’s life because you grow and learn about everything. Childhood is marvelous and it is worth enjoying intensely.

Written By Olivia Cojocaru

SHAVING

“Shaving” is a story told from the third person point of view in wich Leslie Norris desccribes one day of a dying man’s life and his son’s, Barry.   

By the way he tells father’s story, you can remark how strong Barry’s image is compared with his boyhood and also with his father’s. In his seventeens now, Barry changed. Time transformed him, being a tall strongly built boy now. He smiles, remembering of his childhood and goes on, being “bigger than most men”.
    

Not only does Leslie Norris use physical description but moral one as well. You can easily observe the boy’s opinion about himself: “He flexed his shoulders against the tightness of his jacket and was surprised again by the unexpected weight of his muscles, the thickening strength of his body. A few years back, he thought, he had been a small, unimportant boy, one of a swarming gang laughing and jostling to school, hardly aware that he possessed any identity. But time had transformed him. He walked solidly now, and often alone.”
  

Arriving home, he is supposed to shave his father, old and powerless. His hands are “firm and broad”. The fingers are short and strong, “the little fingers slightly crooked, and soft dark hair grew on the backs of his hands and his fingers just 
above the knuckles.”

Barry’s care and expertise of the ritual of shaving shows the process as he became an adult. But this is caused not only for the boy’s caring after his father’s needs, but for his memories from childhood.

Reading this, you can observe how people can change at any age. For me, I think even though Barry becomes an adult, there takes place his rebirth, reported in the third view point.

Written By Olivia Cojocaru

PEOPLE ARE NEVER SATISFIED WITH WHAT THEY HAVE

People are never satisfied with what they have. They always want something more or different. I guess all of us are like this: if you get something, you realise you want another thing, different, or new, or more expensive than the one you have.

We always want something and if we try or work hard, we finally get it or other times we get it without struggling. Then that thing make us very happy and excited, but for a while and in the end we become bored with it. And next we start struggling for other things we think we should have, must have, or need. But now, people do not see the difference between “need” and “want”, so we are used to saying: ”I need that phone”, and not “I want that phone” or “I need that car because is more beautiful than the one I have."

Sometimes we do not get what we really want, but that is alright; we try to reach other things important or not, useful or not. This is how people are and, step by step, we become greedier and greedier. For example if you want new phone, after you have the money you go and buy it. Next, for a while you are very happy and excited and in the end, it will become boring and useless. So, you realise you want another one more beautiful and expensive than the one already have. This is how you try to reach more money, to get what you want. In my opinion this is a waste of time and money, because not only material things can make us happy.

In conclusion, people always and the things the do not have, and when they reach them, they start trying again to get the things they don’t have or they aren’t able to reach.

Written By Alexandra Mihaila

THE FEAR OF BEING HAPPY

We are all looking for happiness. For something that makes us happy, no matter what. That thing you expect to see or to happen everyday. But it does not always come in the right moment. Sometimes, you have to wait for a lifetime to find something that could make you happy.

Happiness is restrained by different reasons. Environment, or social reasons, and especially fear. Why are we afraid ? I believe we are afraid of mistakes, truth and the unknown. We are afraid to take chances, maybe because we are not self-confident. We do not know how strong we are, we do not know our ability to resolve things. We miss different occasions, because of the questions “what if… ?”, “what about now ?”, “if I… ?” I truly believe that some of the best decisions are made in a hurry. I do believe that taking chances leads us to happiness.

This kind of fear is found in the Oscar-awarded movie “The King’s Speech”. The king has stammering problems and he is afraid of taking the risk of working hard to solve his problem. That fear prevented him from being happy, because of his “job”. That fear made him wait for many years, before accepting any help.

Fear is our enemy. So let’s face fear ! It does not have to control our lives. Let’s stop thinking “what if… ?” and face reality. Take risks. Listen to your mind and soul, too. Don’t be afraid to fail; failure is good. And finally, trust yourself. That’s the key to happiness.

Written By Diana Vaduva

TIME AND CHANGE. ANY CONNECTION ?

We can’t truly realize the changes in our lives right away. Time helps us make the difference between “who I was”, “who I am” and “who I will be”. Time goes and never comes back, photographies and memories being the only ones that keep our old selves intact, reminding of whom we used to be. Of course, appearance isn’t the only thing changing. We also grow up mentally, beginning to understand feelings that were unknown to us before. It helps us “survive”. But, everybody must know and understand that’s not you the one who truly changed. Time did it.

It is like your own mother opening an old album and watching with sparkling eyes the pictures of a newborn that is supposed to be you. Your face is filled with amazement as she says “Aww, look how little you were back then.” You were, because you aren’t anymore. The past remains. The present is our current battle. The future depends on what we do.  Ageing up brings us to the right time in doing the right things. 

Someone wise said “The changing is constant, the signal for rebirth, phoenix’s egg.” Once then change has happened, you feel different, act differently, maybe, even see the world differently. In other words, it’s a new self, awoken into the body and with the mind which had to change, in order to face the problems that would appear during lifetime.

Think about who you are and who you were. Tell me. Are you any different ?

 

Written By Andreea Apetrei

WHO ARE YOU ?!

“Someone who knows others very well is a wise man; someone who knows himself is a very lucky and happy person.”

We are the reflection of the world we are living in, and, at the same time, the world we are living in is the reflection of our souls and thoughts. The universe could be just a huge mirror. We can see ourselves in it every day, but, unfortunately, it is hard for some of us to understand what we really are. The first question is why ?

We have fears, uncertainties or complexes… bigger or smaller. It’s natural.  We are the perfect creation of God especially because we have defects, and, more than this, because we are able to grow better and better; because we can defeat them. But, a big problem of humanity could be the fact that we are living in environments which make us not know our qualities. And, when you do not know who you are it is impossible to become someone or to build something ! As people, we are the owners of the most gorgeous treasures. This asset is somewhere inside of us, and our mission is to discovered it… But, most of us are hiding the best things in the dark, oblivion and uncertainty. I think it is amazing how our mind can change us, from great persons into just simple ones. The social position is not a trump, on the contrary. Our family, friends and beautiful feelings are the only ones which support us in our perpetual search of identity. So, when we do not have a friendly or lovely soul beside us we are not able to see the truth in the mirror of the universe.

Some of the people who see themselves just as an inverted reflection of what they really are can defeat their insecurities without help. Others do not and need someone who really believes in their hearts. The person who is able to make an unhappy man see and appreciate the soul and the mind he has is a wise man. Anyway, with or without help, each of us can be a true king or queen in his/ her spiritual world. We are able to change our lives, we are able to be who we really are, we are able to become someone and to build anything just using our mind. It is like in King’s George VI story. Lionel helped “Bertie” to destroy the demons which were in his mind and soul, firstly for himself and secondly because he had the destiny of a whole nation in his hands.

In brief, no one says that it is easy to be yourself and to believe in you qualities and even in your defects, but you have to try again and again. It is like Thomas Edison said: ”I didn’t fail one thousand times. The bulb was an invention which needed one thousand steps.”

Written By Teodora Popa

THE MOUSE AND THE HORSE

Once upon a time
There was a mouse.

Yes, a mouse?!

He wanted more respect

So he went to bed.

Then an idea woke him up:

Which one is the most respected

Loves and appreciated

Of ALL?

The horse, of course.

Wouldn’t it be better for him

To visit the horse first

And find out more?

So, our mouse went to him

And asked what to do

To have more respect in our world, too.

‘Cause in his world, the mouse was respected

And very appreciated.

But here? Nothing.

The horse said he should be wiser

And should not be such a liar.

A few days later, the mouse came back

He was fatter, because he thought

A big body would help him

To get more attention.

But nobody, even the mice,

Respected him anymore.

So he blamed the horse

For everybody treating him worse.

The horse wasn’t angry at all

In fact, he smiled at the mouse

And sincerely said:
“Well, my dear. You did this to yourself.”

“No. I did not! It wasn’t me!”

“Yes, you did.

Unfortunately, you were blinded

By the worst feeling:

Jealousy.

I wasn’t me, it was you.”

That’s the moment when our mouse realised

The mistakes he had made

And that our horse

Deserved the respect he was receiving

From everyone’s giving.

Our mouse regretted he had got fat

And he was convinced  to do something.

So he and the forse began running everyday

From Monday to Saturday.

And that’s how our story ends:
From being enemies to being friends.

Written By Diana Vaduva

COMMENT AVOIR CONFIANCE DE SOI-MÊME

La confiance est quelque chose de précieux

On n´y arrive facilement

On doit se connaître bien

Ce n´est pas une voie facile

Mais je vais te dévoiler un secret.

Là,dans ton âme,

Il y a un chemin,

Que tu n´as pas encore découvert

Sius-le et découvre ton héritage

Abandonné depuis des generations.

Après tant de travail,d´un pas brire

Dirige-toi vers le lever du soleil…

Et regarde à l´horizon,

Vers un arc-en-ciel étendu

Où le ciel se confond avec la terre.

Des oiseaux volent vite dans le ciel,

Et on entend un murmure doux

Les fleurs s´entrelacent dans une courrone,

Vers un mystère oublié depuis longtemps,

Sur le fond d´un lac perdu.

  

Il y a quelque chose dans l´air... étrange mais beau,

Avec les mains tremblantes tu prends le coffer,

L´air est irrespirable

Car tu as atteint le but,

Le but de ce voyage.

Le chemin que tu viens de parcourir

S´achévera bientôt,

Des forêts entières le remplaceront,

Les beaux et les mauvais souvenirs dissparaîtront,

Comme une ombre passagère.

Tu te reveilles de ton rêve,

Tu as les yeux en larmes.

Et tu bondis de joie,d´enchantement…

Car aujourd´hui… ce jour ensoleillé,

La confiance t´appartient.

Écrit par Bianca Axinte

THE SHADOW'S CONFESSION

If a shadow could speak

It will first sing a melody of the meek

Then, because of the light it will duck

And it will start with a cough

“I represent those who didn’t succeed in

life”

But they triumph in the endless life

I’m not cruel or bad

But,unfortunately, I was meant to be sad

A crisis of sorrow rips your soul

You are like a mindless ghoul

A flah of light brings desire

And it starts your inner fire

You turn on the light

And this ends your fight

Feel the power of the light’s might

And the shadow vanishes from sight.

Written By Tudor Stincescu 

A FAIRYTALE WORLD, WITH LEAVES AND RIND AND RESIN

Autumn…reddish leaves are rustling

Under heavy steps…

The steps of someone who wanders astray

From the real world,

Lost into the dreams’ one.

He comes to me, staggering.

I’m a tale world, with leaves and bark and resin.

In me, he always finds

The happiness of a failure,

The shoulder he can laugh on,

The release of the first breaking-up,

The smile of the dark, full of ire, stormy clouds…

I’ve always been his closest friend,

In spring, full of scented blossoms and buds,

In summer, with ripe, savoury fruits,

In autumn, with withered pale leaves,

In winter, bare and covered with crystal clear snow…

I can definitely keep his secrets.

I’m mute…

That’s why I’m such a good listener.

Every morning, he comes to me

And gives me confidence and happiness.

Every twilight, he leaves me alone

In that frozen darkness.

Written By Diana Roman

THE HYMN OF BROKEN SOULS

Think of the broken souls

And make them sing a melody

Make them sing a lullaby

And cry for them to find

Their peace.

Try to understand their sacrifices

What they did for you.

Even if you can’t see them,

They’ll always be with you,

Small shadows with a glint of

Hope.

Because that’s the only thing that

Keeps a flame ignited deep within.

A reminder of hope.

And bound to this world by you

You don’t care about them and hit them because

They aren’t alive.

But they are alive

Alive in your heart.

Well, they should be,

But your ignorance kicked them away

Forever.

Think just once about them,

About what they were,

And about what they will be from now on.

Even if you were a child

You “killed” them with your

Anger.

Even if you didn’t deserve it,

They gave you everything they could

And they also gave you the most important thing: life.

Your life and their life

Again and again.

Think about them and pray for their memory

Beg God to forgive them,

The ones whom you involuntarily ”murdered”

With your arrogance and pride.

The ones who died with a bad memory of you.

Written By Maria Tarnovanu

MY "WRITER"

He is like a very good friend,

Who is always with me. I know that he has no conscience,

Apparently he has no reason to live. Standing in the dark,

More than in the flame of a human soul;

He’s waiting me to come,

Because I am his creation; And he helps me to talk

With those who can not hear.

With him I wrote wind’s history,

With him I condemned so many people to belong to my world,

With him I’m  painting my secret heart now,

We’re saying so much, and nothing, for some.

The universe, the land, the sky and everything that does not exist

All are ours.

I tell him my beliefs, my jinks. Because of him…

All these are palpable,

Because of my pen.

Written By Popa Teodora